Ultra-processed foods are bad for men’s health, including sperm
9mon 11d ago by mander.xyz/u/Pro in health@mander.xyz from news.ku.dk
Even sperm is ultra-processed these days? Ugh
microplastics everywhere
Only if you buy it in a shop. Homemade sperm, fresh from the tap is much healthier.
First, I appreciate the science and understand that the headline and article are produced by a different group than the authors of the paper. I don't doubt the outcomes of the paper. However, what was surprising to me was the chosen meals themselves the study used for "unprocessed" and "ultra processed" meals given to the participants. While there are a number of items included that feel included as an exaggeration (mixed candies introduced to nearly every "ultra processed" meal and chocolate milk in many meals) there were many dishes in the "ultra processed" category that I think most people would consider health choices and not be considered ultra processed.
If you read the actual linked paper (not just the article), it has a supplemental attachment listing and showing the meals of both "processed" and "ultra processed". Here's the PDF of the meals: PDF file
Jeez, you weren't kidding. The processed meals also seemingly include some kind of (likely sugary) drink. But they did control for overall caloric intake:
In the present study, we conducted a dual-arm 2 × 2 crossover-designed dietary intervention to compare the effects of an ultra-processed to an unprocessed diet, wherein participants were randomized to receive both diets at either calorically adequate or excess loads. Diets were provided for 3 weeks, and dietary makeup included an average of 77% of calories from UPFs and 5.5% from unprocessed foods in the ultra-processed diet and 1% of energy from UPFs and 66% from unprocessed foods for the unprocessed diet. Participants received a fixed equal quantity of total calories from both the unprocessed and ultra-processed diets to isolate the specific effects of UPF consumption from those of caloric intake alone.
And this little bit is interesting:
Based on the estimated relationship between caloric intake and body weight change,29 the total energy difference of 7,100 kcal between the ultra-processed and unprocessed diet consumption across the 2 weeks’ intervention was expected to lead to approximately 1 kg of weight gain, whereas study participants exhibited a difference in body weight of 1.8 kg across the intervention.24 Thus, the aggregation of this response to UPF in this latter study with our study provides evidence that calories from unprocessed or UPFs are not equally stored or metabolized, even when controlled for macronutrient load.
But what I could not find in the study is if they actually measured output (fecal, urine). I am not convinced that their +0.8kg find can be attributed to "UPFs are not equally stored or metabolized". It could also be the additional salt in UPFs actually causes more water retention. And the only way to find that out is if they measure completely the inputs and outputs. And from my own anecdata, water retention is totally a thing and can easily be 0.8kg. One good piss can be 0.5kg alone.
You also have to take into consideration that a lot of water is lost through sweat and breathing too.
The terminology seems too binary.
If you consider whole flour wheat bread as unprocessed, then white bread is not "ultra"-processed.
I have no doubt that it is worse, but the difference is probably much smaller than if you compare boiled potatoes to flavored potato chips (crisps for the British)
The ultra processed food is the stuff that's made with things you won't find in your kitchen cupboards, as additives to food.
Most store bought bread has a bunch of preservatives etc added to it. Real bread doesn't stay fresh for a week, at all.
These additional ingredients are not really food but press your brain's buttons in ways that keep you eating. Food science WORKS. If you test for customers saying "mmm yes, I like that, I'd have that again" you end up with products that include ingredients that cause customers' brains to say "more".
If you cook from unprocessed ingredients this doesn't result in as much "MORE." behaviour.
Shop bread is a LOT less healthy than people think.
I don't disagree. But wouldn't the distinction then rather be between store bought and "proper" bakers bread? E.g. you will find additives in whole flour bread from the supermarket that you won't find in "proper" white bread from a decent baker.
It really strongly depends on the baker in question. I don't know what each baker puts in their products, and I think the truth is that we're surprised by how much of this non-food yesyesyeseatmoreeatmore chemical stuff is in innocent looking products.
Eh. I'm sure they were aiming for certain macros, calories, and a determined level of processed and unprocessed foods. I expect the foods they chose were to meet the metrics, so are perhaps strange choices for some people.
What the public mistakenly considers to be ultra-processed or healthy is part of the point.
Personally, I find many of the less-processed meals too carb heavy, and wouldn't eat them.
What the public mistakenly considers to be ultra-processed or healthy is part of the point.
They list Salted Roasted peanuts as "ultra processed". While I know there are many brands of roasted peanuts can have additional flavorings (celery!), regular plain roasted peanuts are pretty non-processed:
Ingredients: Peanuts, Peanut oil, salt
The study considers THAT considered ultra processed?
Peanut oil? Unprocessed?
I bet you 20 random upvotes across your comment and post history that you can't turn a bag of plain unoiled peanuts into an oil with tools in your kitchen and no additional ingredients.
That's some industrial process. Why have they gone to all that time and expense? If your answer isn't "to get you to keep buying more packets of their peanuts" you're fundamentally misunderstanding both food science and what capitalism means by "added value".
Huh? All you need is a blender and some sort of press.
Shit, you don't even need a press since the oil will separate on its own. You don't even need a blender if you have a mortar and pestle.
I have probably a dozen different ways of making peanut oil in my kitchen.
Conceded. I have given you 20 fairly random upvotes across the first three pages of your profile.
Right? It is like they've never seen fresh ground peanut butter you self-serve into a container at the market.
Or just natural peanut butter in general. You have to stir that shit because the oil separates.
💯💯💯💯
Peanut oil? Unprocessed?
Not unprocessed. The measure for this discussion is "ultra processed". Lets even say that the peanut oil is ultra processed. The peanut oil is a very small percentage (likely single digit percentage) of what is being eaten. How much of one component renders the entire food "ultraprocessed"?
It's not that the ingredients that make it ultra processed are making up the bulk of the volume or weight. (Often that's something cheaper.)
It's that they have a significant impact on your body's relationship with food and your gut's microbiome, which has significant correlation with all-cause mortality.
Coffee is almost all water by volume and tiny, tiny quantities of caffeine. Even really strong coffee is only about one mg per ml, and one ml of water is 1g in weight.
0.02% to 0.1% by weight of caffeine and it's enough to change your day or keep you all at night.
You're being really dismissive of the study, and making excuses for your favourite foods, because believing they're bad for you gives you cognitive dissonance. But these are actual scientists' conclusions from actual research, not just some opinions.
You’re being really dismissive of the study, and making excuses for your favourite foods, because believing they’re bad for you gives you cognitive dissonance.
You're misinterpreting what I'm saying, and have created a whole strawman around it claiming my motives and statements are something else. I don't have faith you're open to being corrected with your misinterpretation. I'm not seeing a path for further conversation for either of us from this. I hope you have a nice day.
Not unprocessed. The measure for this discussion is “ultra processed”. Lets even say that the peanut oil is ultra processed. The peanut oil is a very small percentage (likely single digit percentage) of what is being eaten. How much of one component renders the entire food “ultraprocessed”?
This you?
This point is raised every time food is classified using NOVA.
Please see: https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/5277b379-0acb-4d97-a6a3-602774104629/content
In particular,
|GROUP 4| Ultra-processed foods
Some of these substances are then submitted to hydrolysis, or hydrogenation, or other chemical modifications. Subsequent processes involve the assembly of unmodified and modified food substances with little if any whole food using industrial techniques such as extrusion, moulding and pre-frying. Colours, flavours, emulsifiers and other additives are frequently added to make the final product palatable or hyper-palatable. Sophisticated and attractive packaging is used, usually made of synthetic materials.
Sugar, oils and fats, and salt, used to make processed foods, are often ingredients of ultra- processed foods, commonly in combination. Additives that prolong product duration, protect original properties, and prevent proliferation of micro-organisms may be used in both processed and ultra-processed foods, as well as in processed culinary ingredients, and, infrequently, in minimally processed foods.
The peanut oil you can make in your kitchen is processed, but the peanut oil used in this product with sophisticated and attractive packaging is industrially refined peanut oil and ultra-processed.
Not all ultra-processed foods are recent or new. The first such products created and, enabled by mass industrialisation, some commonly consumed for generations, include packaged cookies (biscuits), preserves (jams); sauces, meat, yeast and other extracts; ice-cream, chocolates, packaged candies (confectionery); margarines; and infant formulas.
It's quite clear to me that the product listed here is indeed, under NOVA, ultra-processed. Also, I don't know how you do it, but you don't need peanut oil to roast peanuts in your own kitchen.
To the surprise of absolutely nobody.
To the surprise of vegans lol
If you buy your food, your food is processed in some way. Any food that passes through industrial machines will have microplastics in it. That's because all the machines have plastic parts that wear down with use and shed plastic bits into the food. One example is this recent study of oils in Italy, and Spain:
Microplastics were detected in ALL samples which were stocked in both PET and glass bottles.
I'll have to blow a lot less dicks then, apparently
Hold up...
Sperm is ultra-processed? 🤔
Is that only for store bought? Am I fine if I only consume it straight from the source?